The Hill News

In a somber opening address of the new session of the Arizona legislature  Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.) said that the Saturday shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was an assault on American democracy.

"Saturday's events were not just an attack on those individuals we loved and lost but an assault on our constitutional republic, on our democracy," Brewer said "Arizona is in pain. Yes, our grief is profound. We are yet in the first hours of our sorrows but we have not been brought down. We will never be brought down."

Virtually the entirety of Brewer's speech was dedicated to the shooting which claimed the lives of almost twenty and put Rep. Giffords intensive care after she was shot point blank in the head.

In the speech Brewer highlighted some of the victims of the shooting including 9-year-old Christina Green who died and Daniel Hernandez who rushed to help Rep. Gifford right after she was shot. Fighting back tears Brewer descri! bed how Green, just elected to her school's student council, was excited to go to the "Congress on Your Corner" event that Giffords was hosting.

"She loved baseball, she was the only girl on her little league baseball team and she loved to wear red, white, and blue," Brewer said of Green.

When Brewer asked Hernandez to rise in appreciation of his service the entire chamber erupted in applause.

Brewer's speech lacked any kind of rhetoric that could be interpreted as partisan. Instead she repeatedly referred to the "public service" that legislators like Giffords did every day as elected officials.

"With our faith and our courage tightly in place, we will step forward from this chamber, dedicated to doing the lord's work, continuing to do the service of the public," Brewer said.

Although the tone of Brewer's speech was mostly sad it was also laced with hope.

"Arizona, like all of America, has been through! difficult times before," Brewer said. "But those times have m! ade us s tronger, more enduring."

Giffords survived surgery and her doctors are fairly optimistic about her recovery.